Latest National Youth Tobacco Survey Finds Disturbing Trends

The latest 2014 National Youth Tobacco Surveypublished by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) found more than 4.6 million students reported being current tobacco users – including 1 in 4 high school students and 1 in 13 middle school students.

While cigarette use declined among high school students and remained unchanged for middle school students, hookah use roughly doubled for middle and high school students and e-cigarette use tripled among middle and high school students in just one year.

In the last weeks, NYC Smoke-Free at Public Health Solutions leapt to action to educate the public on the disturbing trends and call for action to further limit youth exposure and access to marketing and sales of tobacco products. Nationally, NYC Smoke-Free assisted CBS Evening News in their national story featuring a Bronx teenager and secured a prominent letter in The Wall Street Journal. Closer to home, we conducted an interview in a feature story on WNYW-TV Fox 5 News at 10pm and secured an op-ed in the Riverdale Press in the Bronx.

“Candy bars and tobacco products like cigarettes and e-cigarettes don’t belong together. Yet at tobacco retailers such as some convenience stores and pharmacies, many located just a stone’s throw from schools, teens and kids are bombarded with bountiful arrays and colorful sales displays of tobacco products. These are one of the last avenues where the tobacco industry can still target and market to our youth.”